Compass

Seven

~~~~~

~Gerard's POV~
I woke up, against my will,
My body decided that it was a good time to be up and running,
I refused to open my eyes, laying cuddled up between my covers, for what seemed like a few minutes.

The sound of the front door opening downstairs shook the house,
my eyes opened faster than ever, as I listened closely, still slightly frozen in my covers, my heart racing for a second.

I heard footsteps making their way up the downstairs hall and the rustling of a coat.
At that I slowly sat up, shaking off the covers and stretching, before stepping down onto the freezing floor, and slowly making my way downstairs.
I felt hesitant for some reason,
and after seeing my mother's face I just felt as if I was guilty,
Though what happened was unknown to me.

She looked at me quietly as she took off her grey scarf, sighing,
She looked away from me, and I couldn't tell if she had something to say,
I shivered in the hallway as I looked at her for any answer.

"What happened?" Naturally, I asked,
Hugging myself in attempt to get rid of the cold, I could feel my heart still pounding in chest, and a feeling of dread came over me,
I watched my mother put her scarf away, before she looked at me, her nose and cheeks red from the cold and I noticed her eyes were too,
"I don't want to upset you" she finally said, her voice quivered a little,
The words caused my longing for the answer to rise, I could feel the discontent seeping through the air,
the tension rising as I furrowed my brows in confusion,
she sniffed sharply, "it will be ok"
she said softly, her voice shaking noticeably a little more than it was before, "Did he die??" I suddenly asked, I could feel the dread in my lungs as I looked at her, slowly feeling the panic start to come on as I just froze,
"No, don't say that" she said, looking at me,
"He will be alright, ok Gerard? He's fine.."
I silently looked at her, with no words
"He will be out of the hospital soon"
She said quietly, taking off her black shoes, placing them down under the rack of coats,
I silently stared, nothing making sense in my brain,
"Just.. go get Mikey, we should eat something"
And with her sigh, I slowly made my way upstairs.
I knocked on Mikey's door,
Slowly opening it after I heard a small "yeah?"
I peeped through and saw him bundled in his covers with messy brown hair and a comic book in his small hands,
he looked up at me as the door creaked,
"Hey uhm, mom's back, she wants us downstairs.. to eat, so yeah"
Mikey gave me a small nod, and right after I closed the door, heading back to my own room.

~~~~~

A small while passed, the Way brothers had changed clothes as the house slowly heated up.

The two of them sat at the dinning table, on the opposite side to their mother,
they each had a bowl of cereal,
Mikey brought his comic along, flipping through the pages as he ate,
while Gerard sat by him, looking at his own bowl and slowly eating.

The air was still cold, and it was overly quiet.

"Gerard" the boy poked his head up, looking at his mother quietly,
"Where'd you get the necklace from?"
Gerard furrowed his brows in confusion for a moment,
catching a momentary glimpse from Mikey, before looking down at the compass hanging from his neck,
"Oh"
He picked up the small casing with his fingers, observing it, the metal was cold and smooth, still looking as shiny as the first time he'd seen it.
He placed it down and returned his gaze to his mother, "I found it"
He said, looking down and taking another spoon full of what was mostly milk,
"Where'd you find it?" She asked, looking at the necklace with a small interest, and puffy eyes,

"Me and Frank found it on the floor by the woods when we were walking home" Gerard lied, still looking down at his bowl,
lightly panicked thoughts rising up, in his mind as he looked up at her slightly, watching as she looked from the necklace and flicked her attention to Mikey and his blue comic.
Gerard took that as a cue to stand up and hurry his way to the kitchen, rinsing the bowl and spoon, "thanks mom"
With those words he was halfway up the stairs and making his way to his room,
eyes already scanning it.
His book lay under his bed, neatly hid behind some raggy old clothes and old year books,
he got down and searched under the bed, pulling out the brown thick leather, before sitting back on his bed and flipping it open to a page somewhere in the centre, running his fingers across the rough pages,
"Must be handmade..." He thought out-loud,
taking a quick paranoid glance at his bedroom door before looking back at his book,
he knew he should probably hide it from his family,
and so he would.

Within few seconds the boy took out his small phone, trying to decipher the fancy writing he was looking at,
he was at it for hours.